‘I was scared to death’ Halifax woman was in the same hotel as the Las Vegas shooter, still shaken as she heads home

The window where a shooter killed 50 people and injured many more can be seen from Rosemary Belgrave’s hotel room at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.

LAS VEGAS, NV – “I heard the last set of gunshots, probably 10. Bang, bang, bang, and then there was one at the end,” Rosemary Belgrave said from the McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, as she waited to go through security.

Belgrave, who is from Halifax, and her two daughters were still feeling “pretty shaky” following the most deadly mass shooting in U.S. history that claimed the lives of over 50 people and left many more injured.

The trio stayed at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, the same hotel as the shooter, who fired his rifle for several minutes at a country music festival across the street.

“We were just leaving the casino, my daughter and I, and we were going to our room, and in the lobby there were two policemen on bicycles blowing their whistles, clearing people away,” she said. They were, fortunately, able to board an elevator and get to their room.

“I knew something massive was happening because I looked out (the window) and it was completely flashing (emergency) lights, the whole city,” she said.

Belgrave was on the 25th floor of the hotel and the shooter was on the 32nd.

“I could have seen him if I would have looked in that direction, but I was looking down at the concert scene,” she said.

She could see people leaving the concert.

“The other thing is the helicopters, they must have been looking for the guy, because they were flying very low right in front of our window,” she said. “I was scared to death. Police were walking up and down the halls with their big machine guns.”

Belgrave said the police knocked on their hotel room door at 3:50 a.m. to make sure they were safe and uninjured.

Belgrave said the whole situation was “just horrific.”

“I saw people who couldn’t get back in the hotel coming in today with blankets around them, it was just awful,” she said.

Pictures of the concert scene, taken from across the street in Rosemary Belgrave’s hotel room at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

She said they had to exit the hotel through the back garage, as much of the building was still cordoned off as part of the crime scene.

Many of the streets in the city were also closed; Belgrave said their taxi driver had to take a much longer route to get to the airport on Oct. 2.

Now heading back home, Belgrave said she’s happy her family is safe, following a very traumatic scene.

Belgrave and her two daughters, Genny and Katie, were in Las Vegas for the weekend to see a Michael Jackson tribute show and Celine Dion.

“These things are going to happen, unfortunately, it’s pretty upsetting and pretty shocking,” she said. “I’m still going to travel.”

Belgrave said her family and friends have been checking in with her all day to see if she and her daughters are OK. She’s happy to be coming home to Canada.

“It’s a shocking, sad feeling that this stuff goes on,” she said. “I mean, we were probably on the elevator with the guy.”